The second source I am using is the book “Bottoms Up: A Toast to Wisconsin’s Historic Bars and Breweries” by Jim Draeger and Mark Speltz. This book has a brief section on the Miller Brewing Company, now MillerCoors. This source talks a little bit about the Miller Brewing Company after the Prohibition because those were the company’s most successful years. The Miller Brewing Company made it through the Prohibition due to a large part to extensive brewery construction projects and national advertising campaigns. Miller took on a building program in the 1940s to boost his brewery and meet the demands of people returning from war.

The building campaigns that Miller used to help his company keep up with the demand of business led to an advertising boom that raised his promotional budget from $850,000 in 1947 to $7.5 million in 1954. This helped the company make print ads that were in the nations popular magazines. Also, they were sponsorships of radio/television shows, sporting teams, and other events. Throughout the years, Miller went from being in the top twenty largest breweries to the top ten, and is now the second largest brewery today. This could not of happened without the campaigns done by Miller.

This book provides me with a brief history of the Miller Brewing Company strategies used to boost business and become the second largest brewery. I do need to do more research on the Miller Brewing Company during the Prohibition, Great Depression, and two world wars (mentioned earlier in my second blog post) to see how the company made it through these hard times. I do believe that this book was a little too brief about the Miller Brewing Company and that is partly because it only has a small section on the topic because it is not a book directly related to the company itself, it is about all Wisconsin Breweries.

This source was useful in briefly explaining a reason why the Miller Brewing Company is so commonly known in Wisconsin, it is the second largest brewery. This source never went into depth about campaigns or sponsorships given by the company, so I would like to search more in depth on the campaigns. Also, I would still like to do more research on the tough times the company had, this source told me that the campaigns were in part a helpful reason why the Miller Brewing Company made it through the Prohibition but I need more details.

Draeger, Jim and Speltz, Mark. “Bottoms Up: A Toast to Wisconsin’s Historic Bars and Breweries.” Wisconsin Historical Society Press. Print.